Testing systems and tools typically generate report documents including results, assessments, and summaries of findings discovered during a test performed by the system and tools. For example, if a testing system is used to test a network device, then a report document may be generated at the end of the test indicating the performance of the network device according to a number of metrics.
Reports are generated in a wide range of formats. The reports can be saved to a file or they can be viewed within the testing system. The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a popular file format used for generating and saving test reports to a file, due to the PDF format being a widely used open standard for document exchange. Other widely used formats include MICROSOFT WORD DOC documents and HTML documents. In particular, both PDF and DOC documents can be used to package a multi-page document in a single file. However, just as important as the results, is the set of settings and configuration of the testing system which yielded the particular results of the system or device under test. The testing system settings, depending on the complexity and range of options provided, can be scattered and hidden under many menus, submenus, and dialogs. Some testing systems provide options for exporting the configuration data of the testing system to one or more configuration files. If the testing system itself stores all of the configuration data in one or more files, then the one or more files can also be accessed by the user, but only if the user knows under which directory such configuration files are located. Different systems also store their corresponding settings using different file structures, making it necessary for users to browse and search for configuration files in order to find them.
The names of configuration files also tend to be nondescript, making it difficult to determine the contents of a configuration file based on a nondescript name. It can also be the case that a configuration file may not be in a human-readable format, and even if a configuration file was in a human-readable format, the configuration file may not include one or more settings that are important to the user. In addition, if the user decided to edit the configuration file, the resulting configuration file may be corrupt or the testing system may not recognize the edits made to the configuration file.
For testing systems that support the importing and exporting of configuration files, importing configuration files to a test system may be desired if reproduction of the test with exactly the same parameters is required. It may also be desirable to import the parameters from the configuration files with the intention of modifying the previously conducted test in a particular way. For example, if during actual use of a system a particular behavior is observed similar to the behavior exhibited in the test scenario, then it may be desirable to import the configuration files associated with the relevant test scenario, and modify the imported parameters to assess how performance varies with changes to the imported parameters, shedding light into the particular behavior observed during actual use.